Increasingly, car companies want to find ways to let you merge your smartphone with your vehicle. Each is offering a slightly different experience but with one commonality — there’s concern over driver distraction, and that must be addressed.

In Ford’s case, they’re pushing MyFordTouch and sync technology, which can allow updates to social networks via voice or streaming satellite radio. With Chevy’s Cruze, you can actually hear your status updates from Facebook thanks to OnStar technology, and with BMW, a company called QNX lets you access information from your Blackberry while driving around.

Certainly we all need to stay connected — but staying focused on the road may be the most brilliant idea.